Hospice Offers Diveristy of Services to Diverse Population

Hospice care is growing more necessary and more popular with year, but many people still have antiquated notions of the services that hospice can provide. The Associated Press recently ran an article that dispelled many myths about hospice care to show how, as the boomer population ages, hospice facilities and organizations are meeting their needs. Blue Skies Hospice is devoted to meeting the needs of all its patients, and much like the organizations described in the article, will use whatever care and comfort methods the patients and their families desire.

From the article:

Chief among those myths is the notion that hospice consists of friendly visitors who sit in a darkened room and hold Grandma's hand while she dies, says Robin Stawasz, family services director at Southern Tier Hospice and Palliative Care in upstate New York.

"It's just not what we do. We come in and help people go golfing or go snowbird down to Florida, or go out to dinner several nights a week. We help them get to the casinos on weekends," she said. "This is not getting ready to die. This is living — living now, living tomorrow, making the best possible life with what you have."

According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, an estimated 1.58 million patients received hospice care from more than 5,000 programs nationwide in 2010, more than double the number of patients served a decade earlier. More than 40 percent of all deaths in the United States that year were under the care of hospice, which provides medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support to patients with terminal illnesses.

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